This blog is about some of the things in my life that I enjoy doing - Zentangles®, cycling, and needle crafts. Hopefully you will enjoy the variety and may it encourage you to begin or follow your own adventures. Welcome, Donald Wilka

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Thursday, June 27, 2013

When the Diva Challenge on grid seeds was done, I put out a grid seed which I could not come up with a name for. Thanks to some comments from some visitors to my blog, I have come up with a name and developed another grid seed pattern. Katydidsworld said that it reminded her of an Italian floor tile. That was not the genesis for this tile, but I liked the possibilities. She recommended that could use the name of an Italian city such as Milan. I looked up what the word for tile was in Italian and it had possibilities. One word that it gave is piastrella. Not really sure of the pronunciation but it had potential. Then my sister reminded me that if I was thinking of using an Italian town name, we had such a name in our own background. We lived close to a town called Genoa and that was also the name of the high school that I graduated from. Hmm... What to do as I had talked with the person whose object was the original seed for the tangle. What to do. I went back and looked at the picture I had taken of the pattern and realized that while what I had done in the grid seed really was different and I actually had two different grid seeds. Problem solved. I hope. Here is the step-out for the pattern that was in the Diva Challenge. I decided to go with the name Genoa.

Thanks to Kathy, a fellow CZT 10, for her suggestion. And thanks to all the people that commented and made such positive comments about the pattern.

As I said, I realized that the original inspiration for the tangle was similar but quite different. I decided to do a separate step-out for that one as well. I won't go into the details behind the name but it is to recognize the person who had the object that inspired the pattern. I have decided to call this Gingajava. Here is the step-out for this grid seed. I hope you enjoy it.

As far as I know neither of these have been done before. If someone is aware that either of these have been posted by someone else, please let me know.

Thanks for visiting. As always, comments are welcomed, encouraged and appreciated.

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

This week's challenge is an open challenge focused on recent events in Calgary. The basic request was that keep Calgary in our thoughts as well as any other place on earth that has been impacted with some sort of tragedy. This was tough as was not sure what to do. Even after I was done, there were a lot of negative things that went through my mind about this ZIA. but I am not going to There have been a variety of things lately that have occurred such as the tornadoes in Oklahoma. When such things occur, as Laura mentioned there are stories that emerge about miraculous things and the community pulling together. It does not change the events that occurred but provides some level of hope and comfort to those involved. That was the focus of my thoughts as I was doing this ZIA. Even with the raging water and the parts of the earth stripped bare, there are signs of hope and life that still emerge. I am not sure that the images accurately portray this, but it is a message of hope. I hope that you enjoy it.

If you have not been to I am the Diva would encourage you do visit and see the other great tiles and ZIAs that others have submitted.

Thanks for visiting. As always, comments are welcomed, encouraged, and appreciated.

Have been toying with this idea for a while and just have not taken the time to do anything about it. Think I was a little apprehensive about what could happen. Always looking for new mediums to use tangles. This is an 8x10 piece of Plexiglas that I used a battery powered rotary tool to etch the design. It really turned out better than I had hoped for a first time. It was hard to get a picture as any back ground the Plexiglas was up against hid the design. That is one issue as it does not stand out very much. thinking that part of the problem may be that I need to etch deeper and also possibly use the tool to do some shading almost like a graphite pencil. Here are some pictures, the design shows up dark but I think that is because of the flash.

On these two pictures you are seeing the shadow of the design that was created with the flash. It gives you some idea of what the design is.

These two are indirect shots. They are not great but it does give you some idea of what the design looks like.

Has anyone else tried this before? If so, what did you do to get the design to stand out more? Is there a method to add color to the areas that are etched? If so, can you direct me to where I can get information about this? One thing that I think would make a difference is if I used my Dremel tool. Think the rpms are higher and I have a few more diamond bits that I can use. I guess one question is do you think this is worth pursuing?

Monday, June 24, 2013

Have been busy trying to get some things ready for the Art in the Park show that is coming up in a couple of weeks. Is an opportunity to show what can do with Zentangle® and to get a little publicity for classes. Of course, I am hoping to make a few sales. Have been looking at different things that I could do and will include some old favorites also. Here are a couple of new travel mug inserts.

Have not trimmed them and fitted them to the mugs but it is easier to take a picture this way.

Have looked at the posts from Maria on frames and seen some of the things that others have tried so I decided to try a few mattes. Here they are.

This one would fit in an 8 x 10 frame for a 5 x 7 picture. here are a couple of close ups of different sections since was hard to get too close.

This is fits a 5x7 frame and the cut out is 4x6.

I was generally pleased with the results of these, especially for a first try.

Was trying to think of something that I could do with some of the tiles that I have completed. It is nice to have them around, but after a while storage is a problem. Took a page from Maria and Rick and what I saw a local photographer do, and decided to see if could make a coaster out of them. This is the result.

Cut out a piece of hardboard, glued the tile to it and then covered it with epoxy. Am still looking at ways to finish the bottom as when you use the epoxy you get a good deal of dripping before it sets. I may try to see if varnish will work as well but would probably have to put on multiple coats. Have seen spray varnish with UV protection. Do not really like the spray and think it would also be expensive rather than something that could brush on. If anyone has had any other experiences would like to hear what you used. This one turned out well but the problem with the epoxy is the fumes(although they were not too bad. Temperature may be more a problem later in the year) and sometimes end up with air bubbles.

I know this is a long post and I appreciate if you have stayed with it this long. The last thing is a project that my sister told me about. I have never seen any of the ones that she did, but wanted something that would be quick and something that might attract a few shoppers. Have 3 different key fobs. Two of them could have been tangled on both sides but decided to only do one side. Here are examples of each of them.

This is just a little smaller than the ATC tiles.

This is about 2" long & just under 1" wide.

This is just a little longer than 1" at it's widest part.

Thanks for visiting. Hope you enjoyed looking. If you have questions, let me know. As all ways, comments are welcomed, encouraged, and appreciated.

This week's template was an interesting one. I liked it but it did pose some challenges in deciding what I wanted to do with it. I decided to end my Shattuck moratorium and included it in this one. Did not really intend to have as many organic tangles as I ended up with, but they just seemed to fit. Not sure that there is a whole lot more to say. Hope that you enjoy it.

Tangles used: Shattuck, Zinger, Striping(variation),Scrawlz & Tipple

Non-tangles used: leaves

As usual there are all ready a number of great submissions on The Bright Owl's blog. Would strongly recommend that you visit often to see what others are doing also. I briefly looked at them after I finished mine but plan on going back and taking a little more time to peruse.

Thanks for visiting. As always comments are welcomed, encouraged, and appreciated.

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

I guess maybe I have been removed enough from doing the challenge to take another look at the question. One of the things that I think makes it difficult to answer the question is not knowing if we are using a common definition of Zentangle®. Are you evaluating it as a method? Are we evaluating it as the patterns or the image created by the patterns? The definition on zentangle.com is '... an easy to learn, relaxing, and fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns." Zentangle also refers to the image/artwork created. For me the key word is structured. To me this does not mean that it is just totally random lines. There is some substance to it. To me random is what occurred in my first tile. There is an image done by RitaN1 that is somewhat random and her image looks fantastic. Is it structured. Structured to me implies that it is something that can be repeated. I think the one line method can be repeated, so it maybe is structured. I will let others more knowledgeable than me handle that one.

The way that I read the question posed in the challenge had to do whether could create a zentangle using patterns that were not established or their tangleations. To this I would say yes. I do not think that it is just about the patterns. I think the hard part is that there are so many established patterns that I am not sure if anyone knows all of them. If you have been using established patterns for a while, I think it is hard to change your mind set. I think what some people did was a way to approach it. They went looking for new patterns and deconstructed them.

To complicate it even more I think that have to include the method and characteristics of zentangle for it to meet the criteria of a zentangle. While my first tile did meet this criteria, I do not think it met using structured patterns.

I guess that the conclusion that I come to is that it is not an easy question to answer as there are multiple criteria that have to be met, not just whether you use established patterns.

I hope that I have not offended anyone with my comments. Would be open to hearing any responses that you might have regarding this.

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

I had mixed reactions to this challenge. I read the challenge a couple of times and am still not sure if I understand exactly what is to be attempted. Is it just to not use all ready established patterns? Which could mean if you created another pattern you would have created a new tangle. Or is the task to just draw and see if patterns emerge. Looking at the submissions of others was not totally helpful, although it did reveal some very nice images. People had varied interpretations. What I chose to do was focus on just using the five basic strokes in Zentangle®. I ended up doing two tiles as I really did not like the first. In the first, I started by doing the border and string. In each section I did one or more of the basic strokes randomly throughout each section. When I got done, was no discernible pattern. I began to fill in parts but still there was not really any discernible pattern. Is it Zentangle? Look and see what you think and will share my thoughts below.

The only thing that I would say that makes this a Zentangle is that I used the basic method to start. I did not get away from thinking about what to do other than when I was randomly doing the strokes. After I was done I began looking at it to decide what I was going to do with it. Did some fill and some shading. This really felt like what I would refer to as doodling. There was no pattern or sense to it, it was random line

I did the same thing with this one by starting with the basic method but then totally ignored the string. I again tried to use the basic strokes. Started with the larger "S" shapes. I then tried to do things inside and was a little more conscious of trying to create something that was somewhat of a pattern, but not an established one. This was work. What resulted are the patterns in the 3 larger S lines. I finished it off with straight lines around the outside and dots in the spaces. The last thing was the shading. I liked the way that this one looked but does that make it a zentangle.

I guess to answer the question, "Is it a Zentangle?" for me is no. The second one is maybe a little closer as it did have some patterns. I guess I would go back to what I know of the definition of Zentangle. It uses structured patterns to create images. I think the Zen part is that one can get lost in the process as there is some repetitiveness to the patterns. It also is that you do not necessarily decide ahead of time what tangles you are going to put together. You can do it completely randomly. Since a lot of people participate in the challenges, which is not a negative thing, but it does set some parameters as to what is to be done. It does not, at least to me, mean that you approach the task with no thought.

That is at least my take on it. That does not mean that you cannot create some great images using some patterns, but do not think that they can be defined as Zentangles. I would say at best they are ZIAs.

Would recommend that you visit I am the Diva and see the images that others have created and to get their views and their answer to the question, Is it a zentangle.

Thanks for visiting. As always, comments are welcomed, encouraged and appreciated.

Sunday, June 16, 2013

This was an interesting Dare. I may have been a little overly ambitious with this one. When I saw it, all I could see were the layers. It was a lot smaller than I thought. I am glad that I had a 005 Micron to work with because I ended up using it a lot. I was a little undecided about what to do with the spokes. I had thought about filling them with black, but felt that might be a little overpowering. Could not really think of a tangle that I thought would fit so just decided to leave it open. Since I usually fill in most open spaces was probably a good decision to just leave it alone, even if it was a little disconcerting. Over all I am pleased with the results. I hope that you enjoy it.

Tangles used: Muchin, Chard(variation), Cubine, Bales.

I usually do not get mine done and posted this early so am not sure how many others have all ready been posted. Would encourage you to check The Bright Owl frequently during the week to look at what others have done.

Thanks for visiting. As always, comments are welcomed, encouraged, and appreciated.

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

This week's Challenge is taken from a recent post by Rick and Maria about the different ways that can embellish and build off of grids. In the blog post/ newsletter there was a 10 x 5 grid showing different ways to fill a grid. It was ala Tripoli in her journal. The Diva called them grid seeds.The Diva challenged everyone to take one of the patterns in the grid as a starting point or to create their own. This provided me the opportunity to play with the the grid based pattern I had recently deconstructed and used in last week's Zendala Dare. I still do not have a name for it and am not really sure that it has not been done before. If anyone recognizes it let me know. If there are names that you can suggest would also be open to that. If not, may have to go the random word generator to come up with a name. I did three different variations. I am sure that there are more that could be thought of. Some of the time, what you can do with it may depend on the size of the grid that you use. This was a little bigger than the Zendala so I could do a few more things. Hope that you enjoy it.

Tangles used: Unnamed tangle, petals, Mooka, Zingers

If you have not all ready done so would encourage you to go to I am the Diva to look at the other tiles,ZIAs that others have submitted. There are always some great things posted there.

Thanks for visiting. As always, comments are always welcomed, encouraged, and appreciated.

Thursday, June 6, 2013

Was not sure that I was going to participate in this weeks Dare as am trying to get things ready for a display/demo/show in July. Need to have some inventory. When I saw the tangle being used, felt a little compelled to submit something. I first saw this tangle when Mary used it on her name tag at the CZT training. She had used it as a border and I really liked it. She was kind enough to do the step-out in my journal. I have used it a number of times since. I used it on Zendala Dare #37 as a border. I ended up framing it and entered it in the local Art Association spring show. It helped me get an Honorable Mention ribbon. Thanks Mary! I have generally used it as a border so this time I decided to try to use it as a main tangle. I chose to do a monotangle, ( will Mary hit the trifecta and add Adventures in Monotangle to her credits this week?). I had not done a spiral for a while and thought that would be fun string. It is nothing exciting but I hope that you enjoy it.

I have not had a chance to look at many of the submissions so far, but I did notice that there were a lot of them all ready. Would strongly encourage you if you have not all ready done so to visit I Am the Diva and check out what others have done.

Thanks for visiting, As always, comments are welcomed, encouraged, and appreciated.

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

I finally had to time to work on this weeks Dare. I have to admit, the template I chose is probably not the most troublesome for me but I was not ready to go back to doing the zendala in pencil so soon. I could not think of any other templates that I had used that I really was that uncomfortable with. So what I did was go back through the dares that I had not participated in and looked at those templates. There were a couple that I could have used but I chose Template # 20.

I chose this one because when I looked at it my thought was, "What tangles can I use in that?" Honestly, the only thing that I could think of was for the center. That is maybe why it took me so long to get started. Once I did, it came together rather quickly. I am generally pleased with the result. Hope you enjoy it.

Tangles used: Betweed, Zander, Flux, Hibred, Knightsbridge,

I hope that people have read this far. The pattern around the outside is one that I deconstructed a couple of weeks ago. I do not know if this is one that has been out there before or not. If anyone knows if this is a tangle someone else has posted, let me know. I have not thought of a name for it yet so any suggestions there would be useful also. I was not really planning on using it until I had a little more time to research it but after seeing Maria's blog post on grids I thought it fit in with this. Did not see this in all her variations. When I first did it I did it in a grid oriented as a diamond. I like the way it looks that way better, but felt that this space was too small to use it that way.

If you have not done so, would highly recommend that you visit The Bright Owl to look at the other tiles that have been submitted

Thanks for visiting. As always, comments are welcomed, encouraged, and appreciated.